Customer Reviews

The Grateful Dead Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Grateful Dead movie came out in 1977 but consists of footage shot during an October 1974 series of concerts at the Winterland, the last to use the "wall of Sound" system, and the shows preceeded a break from touring but by the time it came out, they had already resumed performing. It is as much about the fans, the sound crew, the "wall of sound" PA, and promoter Bill Graham as about the band. When I saw it back when it came out and a couple times at local high school auditoriums over the next few years, I was always left with the feeling that it was a little short on uninterupted concert footage. The film tries to cover so much ground the music performances suffer. The other place I felt it was lacking was the sound mix. This new DVD release basically fixes my two main gripes about the original release. It has a second bonus disc of extra song performances, and it has been remixed- it now sounds alot better (but for those who want the original mix, you can play it that way too for the movie portion). There is also some extra interview footage. The transfer of the film has been well done. The dead always had good people working for them, whether it was Betty Cantor, Dan Healy, Steve Parish or Ron Wickersham- and now Jeffrey Norman and David Lemeieux, the keepers of the vault. They have done some excellent work with this release and "The Closing of Winterland" DVD....both come from a period many consider to be their best. Now we can have our own virtual Dead concert. If you like this DVD, I'd also recommend the 5 CD "Movie soundtrack" set which is one of the best audio releases.

David Lemieux is the Grateful Dead organization's current "keeper of The Vault", having taken over for the band's original archivist Dick Latvala, may he R.I.P.

Remastering The Grateful Dead Movie is his second major video project, the first being "The Closing of Winterland", which is also highly recommended.

Even though the Dead were at their creative peak in 1974 (my opinion, of course), the audio and video quality of the multitude of concert videos that have been released by and of this band arguably improves as we move forward in time, if for no other reason than technology. Simply stated, they were able to make a better recording in, say, 1990 than in 1974.

All that changed when when David Lemieux decided to go back to some of earlier masterpieces and painstakingly remaster them.

I own The Grateful Dead Movie on VHS and on LaserDisc. Yet they rarely get played due to lack of decent audio quality. There's simply so much more to enjoy from this band that's of so much better quality.

The remastered Grateful Dead movie on DVD is a treat for the eyes, ears, and spirit! If I'm not up off the couch dancing as if I were at a show, I'm sitting there mesmerized with an ear to ear grin, sort of like the dude in the front row of the show!

THE REAL TREAT, however, is the "second disc", which includes footage that never made it to the original movie. In my opinion, the second disc with its never-seen-before-footage is where you'll find the real nuggets of pure joy, pure Grateful Dead heaven, the band at their best! Wait, oh just you wait, until you experince The Other One > Spanish Jam > Mind Left Body Jam > The Other One! Yeeow!

I own every piece of commercially available Grateful Dead video, and some that are not commercially available and this magical "Second Disc" is the finest bit Grateful Dead video available. Period.

I cannot express in words how awesome this dvd set is. They did an excellent job with it in every way. The sound will blow you away, especially if you have a 5.1 system (you don't need it, there is a regular stereo sound option too) but the surround sound is insane.

The extras are all top notch - stuff you actually want to watch. I have to say that this is probably the best music DVD purchase I have ever made - the content, the packaging the little booklet - it's all of the highest quality. Very highly recommended!

One: This movie captures the Dead live in 1974. Two: It shows them at Winterland, in San Francisco. Three: They sound GREAT!

If you still need more reasons to buy this, the sound quality is as good as 1974 could produce, with a lot of help from the included modern remixes. The film gives us a taste of the whole Grateful Dead experience. And the concert itself is simply an orgy of far-out good feelings, alternative-thinking people doing alternative-thinking things, and a smiling and animated Jerry Garcia who is of course the spark that lights the fire in the hearts and the breeze that rustles all the leaves in all the souls present.

If this movie has a downside, it is this: Some of the newcomers to the Grateful Dead who watch it will be converted into new, true Deadheads, and they will have to begin that lifelong journey living with the sad reality that Jerry is no longer with us. We are left with only recordings, films, and the memory of a Great Spirit who changed the world for the better with his fingertips.

My gawd this is a great dvd.

The film itself holds up as a look at a passionate rock band: the Grateful Dead seen in this footage are so musically confident that they can knock out tunes that are creative and loose, and at the same time intensely jazzy and complex. The opening animation sequence is as good as you might remember (if you've seen the film), but maybe not as relevant now that many of us no longer live on the road. The wall-of-sound stage setup is still awe-insiping. Donna and Keith are great... there is a moment in the film where Garcia looks so damned pleased to be playing little meoldic fills while Donna moans -- it's really amazing.

And ultimately, the movie is a important reminder that Garcia and the band were once young guitar-slinging rock stars, up for a bouncy musical exploration at every turn.

What makes this dvd absolutely outstanding is the extra performances included (sequences not shown in the movie itself). The jammed-out version of the Other One is stellar. The Dark Star is quite good (although the tune ends strangely), and the China-Rider is excellent. To see this 1974 film-quality footage is an immense treat.

Other dvd extras include excellent documentary pieces and some good still photography.

Garcia as the director of the original film would be quite proud of this modern re-release. What a fine job... it's my favorite Dead dvd to date -- thank you to everyone who created this -- from 1974 on up to 2004!

This is the best theatrically released concert film ever! It's compiled from five nights of performances at the Winterland in San Francisco, from October of 1974. At the time, the band announced these shows as their final concerts, as touring with the Wall Of Sound PA (you'll see why they called it that in the soundcheck footage that comes after Going Down The Road Feeling Bad) became too cost prohibitive.

This features some excellent versions of many of the bands classics, including Eyes Of The World and Morning Dew. The animation is brilliant (it's often been said that the opening animated sequence the precedes the actual concert footage could have been released as in it's own right as a short film, and in fact, a sizeable chunk of that have footage has been shown on MTV and VH-1 Classic as a video).

There's too many great things in this film, but musical and otherwise (the scene where Phil's custom Alembic bass starts picking up a weird hum/feedback from one of the cameras is a particular favorite bit).

I'm looking forward to finally have a state of the art DVD transfer of this film, as the old VHS wasn't that great.

I would only hope they've included some footage that got left out of the original movie (the film would have been over 15 hours if they had including all of the music that was played during those five nights, and that wouldn't even count the non-musical stuff).

This is a totally great movie about The Grateful Dead. It really captures what it was like to see the Dead live in concert.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I used to be a total Deadhead. I saw them 587 times in concert.

The only thing missing for me in this movie that I used to see during the actual concerts is the 30 foot tall talking turtle that used to sit next to me at most of the shows. That dude was awesome! He'd sit there and tell me stories about life in Giant Turtle Land and then he'd play air guitar along with Jerry's real guitar playing. Giant Turtle Guy was the best!

Anyway, if you love the Dead, you'll totally love this movie. Get it and get a Grateful groove on...

I'm not going to write a long review here, but I have to say that the bonus disc is fantastic - seeing the Dead play in 1974(5 years before I ever saw them myself), without interruptions for crowd shots, etc., is really great. The song selection is excellent, far better than the songs in the movie itself. Watching this bonus footage, I feel like I'm right on stage with the band. The interviews are also very good.

This video features a good selection of live songs taken from the GD's Winterland 1974 end-of-year shows. The songs are left intact, for the most part, except for some interviews during certain songs. Most of the show is shot from the side of the stage, or from a 10th row center seat.

The video also features a few scenes of Deadheads before, during, and after the show. Jerry Garcia, as director, did an excellent job of capturing the philosophies and grooves of the Deadheads of that era.

A great song list and great concert footage!

This video is a documentation of the Grateful Dead's "Retirement" conerts at Bill Graham's Winterland in San Fransisco, CA. in October, 1974. The band had made the decision to take an indefinate amount of time off from the road, and give themselves a much deserved (and needed) break.

This film is an excellent view of the band at the end of one of their many peaks over the years. It features much fine music, as well as many insightful views of the scene that had come to surround them. Jerry Garcia himself edited over 150 hours of film to come up with this 2hr, 20 minute bit of history.

This is a high-quality endeavor from start to finish. Whether you've been 'on the bus' since the beginning, or never got the chance to go to see the band in person, this film is a must see for fans of all ages.